CV joints rarely break suddenly and leave you stranded. They will make
clunking noises and have other indications before they go. The usual sudden
failure is the center cage breaking. If you have no issues and you know the
grease is fresh ten let them go.

Dennis

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
Don Hanson
Sent: Friday, April 16, 2010 11:14 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: CV joints..What to look at, how to tell...

No drug content, but I did say "Joint" in my subject line..do I get credit
for that?

  Tomorrow is going to be an 'under Vanagon' maintenance session for me.  I
have my regularly scheduled spelunking maintenance to do and while I have
all that 'smegma' in my eyes, I wanted to check on my CV joints again.  Last
summer I pulled em all apart and repacked with fresh grease, and I replaced
one that was the worst one--a couple of the bearings and the cage was pretty
badly surface galled.  The others showed some discoloration on the bearings,
cages looked OK.  I didn't have the cash to just replace em all because of
a bit of heat bluing.
Right now,  I hear no unusual or alarming noises while driving..everything
seems OK under there..From the Driver's seat. But I am, "Going Under" in the
morning,  swapping in some Swepco for the tranny and lubing and checking all
the shift linkage as well as changing gas filter and adding an inline
"pre-pump" filter, so I am going to be "right there" at the axles...

  I really don't want to take the axles apart again just to look. I'd really
like to avoid that awful mess of grease and solvent, probably stripping out
an allen screw or two, if I can  right now...So, can I get an idea of how
those joints might be holding up by any non-invasive inspection methods?
Push/pull on the axles?  Rotate a wheel and listen?  Run the van while on
jackstands and listen?...anybody have any little tricks that might help me
tell if I have an imminent failure just waiting to happen under there?

  I am planning on doing a complete job on the CVs and axles this coming
fall, when I do my next 'under van' scheduled maintenance before our next
major trip, our  winter time desert sojourn.  I am being lazy and maybe a
bit risky, I know...but I just don't have the time and cash right now to
simply do the whole thing on the basis of some heat discoloration I saw last
time in there...

  Helpful hints?  thanks, Don Hanson